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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

Salt and fat aren't necessarily unhealthy. Some people are genetically sensitive to sodium for high blood pressure but for most of us it's fine. And people would generally be better off getting more of their calories from fat than simple carbohydrates.

The real issue with a lot of restaurant food is simply huge portion sizes that tempt diners to overeat.

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This is a bit misleading, not all fat is created equal. Saturated fat in particular has been clearly shown to correlate with heart disease, and there’s a ton of saturated fat in butter, cream, red meat, cheese, etc. So much so that if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol it’s basically impossible to order something satisfactory at a typical restaurant.

The saturated fat - heart disease connection has been questioned quite a bit over the last decade or two. It’s unclear at this point whether it even exists.

Some observational studies have shown a slight correlation between subject reported saturated fat intake and heart disease. However those studies had multiple confounding factors (healthy subject bias), the effect size was small, and no one has ever shown clear causation. I'm not recommending consuming extra saturated fat but don't overstate the strength of the scientific evidence.

The real issue with heart disease is more about atherogenic lipoproteins than cholesterol, and genetics are a more important risk factor than diet.

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